


Blue Screen

by SnowWhiteKnight



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, BSOD, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Graphic Designer!Sansa, IT Guy!Sandor, dense potato!Sandor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-07 20:49:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13443117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowWhiteKnight/pseuds/SnowWhiteKnight





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AzraelGFG](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AzraelGFG/gifts).



“Oooohhhh, another redhead. Could be like sisters, you and I,” Sansa's new desk mate said. 

Sansa giggled and held her hand out. “Nice to meet you, I'm Sansa.”

“Ygritte. Welcome to Clegane Promotions and Printing. Where your coworkers are like your family.” She winked at Sansa. “Things you need to know, the boss is a right cunt. His son works for him as IT, and he's a bit better, but he's a grouch. Also a hermit. Stays in his office most of the time. You'll need to see him to set up your email. Just to warn you, he has really bad scars. He's had reconstructive surgery on them, but it's still really noticeable. Don't stare. He hates that. What else? Oh. The salespeople are selfish assholes. The only good ones are me, and the two over in customer service. I'm Accounts, by the way. If someone is paying or needs to be paid, they talk to me.”

“Have you worked here long?” Sansa asked. 

Ygritte leaned back in her chair. “Almost two years now. Turnover here is a bit high, since the boss is such a tyrant, so two years is a good accomplishment.”

“Oh, I had no idea, it wasn't mentioned in the interview…”

“Who did your interview?”

“Mrs. Clegane…”

“Ah, that explains it. She was worried of scaring you away. You're the fifth graphics person we've had in three months. The boss keeps getting them to quit based on his personality alone. Like I said, he's a right cunt. Really, I have no idea how his sweetheart of a wife puts up with him. Anyway, let me show you around.”

**********

“And this is The Cave,” Ygritte said, leading Sansa down a dark hallway. 

“The cave?”

“No, no, no. Gotta say it proper.  _ The Cave. _ Capital ‘c’. This is the lair of  _ The Hound!” _

Sansa stared at her new friend. “I beg your pardon, the hound? There are pets here?”

Ygritte doubled over with laughter. “You're killin’ me! You haven't heard any chatter as we walked around?”

“Oh...well, a little bit. I was trying to stay focused on what you were saying. What's the hound?” Sansa asked politely. 

Ygritte was still giggling but had mostly calmed down. She rapped a curious rhythm on the door before answering, “You'll see.” 

**********

Sandor rolled his eyes when he heard the knock.  _ What the hell does she want now!? _ he thought, flipping his screen to the video feed. He snorted when he saw the irritating redhead. “Go away, Ygritte,” he said into the intercom. 

He watched her press the button to respond.  _ “No can do, Hound. I bring a peace offering, a new employee for you to terrorize.” _

_ “What?!” _ he heard gasped from someone else. He peered at the screen. He hadn't even noticed the girl, another redhead but so very different from Ygritte. For starters, she was gorgeous. Ygritte was pretty enough, but this new one, she was ‘only in dreams’ level of beauty.  _ Shit, did Ygritte just say that she's the new employee? _ He hated when new employees came in. Brushing his long hair over the scarred side of his face, he buzzed them in. 

"Hound. This is Sansa. Sansa, this is the notorious Hound, aka, Sandor Clegane. She needs an email setup. Laters!"

The new girl looked panicked as Ygritte spun on her heel and marched out, closing the door and leaving them in near darkness. Only the light from the monitors lit the room up. "Um… I… I…" She was flailing, and it was utterly adorable. "Please don't terrorize me!"

Sandor stared at her, then busted out laughing. The new girl looked perplexed, but visibly relaxed. "Is that what you were worried about?"

"Well, yes! Ygritte was just saying…" She looked in the direction of the door. "She was pulling my leg, wasn't she?"

Sandor chuckled. Ygritte hadn't been, but he suddenly didn't want to tell her that. "Come on, let's get you settled then."


	2. Chapter 2

“Nonononononooooooo!” Sansa cried out. Ygritte rolled her chair over. “What happened?”

Sansa was near tears. “My computer...it just blue screened.”

Ygritte’s eyes went wide. “Oh, shit. Well, the boss pays for backup service on all our stuff. You should be fine.”

Sansa sniffled and hoped Ygritte was right.

**********

“Did you hear? That Stark girl might get fired today,” she heard someone say in the break room. Her back stiffened. Mr. Clegane had been very vocal about his displeasure on what had happened. She winced at the memory, still fresh in her mind from yesterday.

“What for? And which one is she?” someone else asked.

“Uh, the reason is unclear. Office gossip says she either fucked the boss's son, or she embezzled money. And I'm not sure which one she is. I think she's blonde?”

_This is ridiculous,_ she thought. _If I'm going to get fired, it'll be because I lost thousands of dollars worth of data when my computer crashed. And how can they not know who I am?? There's only ten people in this company and more than half are the sales associates!!_

Sansa was the only graphic designer employed by CP&P, but the boss, Victor Clegane, styled himself as a designer extraordinaire and kept the high cost orders to himself. That was just fine by Sansa, since any mistakes on those orders would _definitely_ cost her her job. She didn't even _like_ the job anymore, but it paid the bills and until she could find something in another field, she was stuck.

“She probably embezzled money. The likelihood of anyone fucking that ugly asshole is in the negative.”

Sansa frowned. _That was unkind._

The second son of the boss, Sandor, wasn't the most friendly of people, but once you got to know him, he was actually nice to hang around. True, he'd never win any beauty contests, but he was handsome in his own way. Plus, it wasn't like she _hadn't_ thought of going out with him, she just kept losing her nerve to actually ask him out, afraid of hearing him say “No”. It wasn't like he was jumping at the chance to ask her out either, or really give any indication that he liked her like  _that._ He liked her, of course, but did he like her the way she liked him? Did butterflies sprout in his tummy when he thought about her? Did he ever envision snuggling with her when they went to the movies? Did he get nervous whenever she was at the door to his office? She sighed heavily, knowing that she'd never get any answers unless she asked him, but that was possibly the most nerve wracking thing she had on her mind. Well, second most. Obviously, getting fired for the loss of company property was at the top of the list.

They had become close friends in the past three years she had worked for his father's company. He had helped her through a messy break up with her long time boyfriend, Joffrey Baratheon. She had helped him clean up his wardrobe when his dad was getting on his case to dress more professionally (despite not seeing any of the clients). His mother loved her enough to invite her to brunch once or twice a month. Sandor often came as her plus one to family gatherings. Her brothers had been wary of him at first, but now constantly teased her about when she was going to become the next Mrs. Clegane. They hung out a lot, going to the movies, going over to each other's apartments, even just going to get groceries together. She'd even freely admit that he was her best friend.

_Wait a minute! Maybe Sandor can help! He's the IT guy, after all._ She had half an hour left on her lunch break. Plenty of time to go see him. She was planning on seeing him after work anyway, but her computer was still on the fritz and she was mostly doing non-clerical office work to fill her time. _Any excuse to serve a tyrant,_ as Sandor was fond of saying. She smiled. Call her a tyrant then, any excuse to see him was good enough for her.

**********

“You're shitting me,” Sandor said. “That was you?”

She nodded. She was sitting next to him at his desk, shivering a little from how cold he kept it in there, watching him type in code for security protocols in the company server. She scooted a little closer to him for warmth. He wasn't even stopping while he talked to her, and he probably wasn't making any mistakes either. She found his ability to multitask fascinating. Sansa was more of a one track person.

“Dad was fucking pissed about that. I didn't mention I had been backing up the damn files for all the computers every night since he let the online backup service lapse two years ago. He deserves a bit of heart palpitations every so often.” He sighed and stopped typing. “But... Since it's your pretty little neck on the line though, guess I should tell him.”

“You think my neck is pretty?” she asked, knowing she should be concentrating on the other part, but c’mon! Sandor had a strange way with words, but that was a compliment (from him anyway) and an indication he might say yes to a date, but she'd probably lose her nerve to ask him, yet again. Every time he said stuff like that, she'd swear to ask him out, but not even five minutes later, she'd be reasoning that he'd never mean it like _that._

He went a little red and in a grumpy tone said, “Just a figure of speech. You know what I mean. Of course, you're pretty... Be blind to not notice that. Just... I have work to do, you know!” He was getting flustered and cursed as he had to backtrack and re-write some code that he had messed up on.

Suddenly, she did know, and she _knew_ when he was trying to cover up a slipped truth. She smiled, glad to be proven right and filled with confidence to tease him a little. “Well, I guess if you _don't_ actually think my neck or any of me is pretty, then I should think of another way to thank you for saving me. How about a nice gift card to that website you said you liked?”

He frowned, but it was the one he did when he was trying to not smile. “Just doing my job, little bird.”

**********

Later that afternoon, she heard the office talk come to a complete stop. Dead silence reigned as the familiar stomp of boots practically echoed off the walls. She looked up to see Sandor heading towards his dad's office. He gave her the slightest of nods when she smiled at him, but made no other indication before disappearing into the office, shutting the door solidly.

The silence continue as loud voices became louder and angrier. It wasn't long before the entire staff could hear them.

“Who the fuck gave you the authority to make that decision!? I should write you up with an infraction, son or not!”

“You gave me the authority, you shit! I have the fucking email to prove it! You said and I _quote,_ ‘keep this company's digital security as your top priority.’ Making sure nothing is lost due to your ineptitude falls under that category! And you best be fucking glad that I did! If I hadn't done this godsbedamned _infraction_ , you would have eventually lost everything because you're such a buggering cheapskate!!”

“If that employee hadn't--”

“Oh, shove off, old man. If you're blaming the employee, you’re an idiot. Nothing can be done when hardware goes bad. If you actually read my reports, you'd know the computers are _all_ due for upgrades.”

Silence for a very _long_ thirty seconds.

“FINE. But you're doing the upgrades yourself and you're the one who'll be fired if anything goes wrong.”

She could practically _hear_ Sandor's eyeroll when he said, “That'll be the day.” More heavy footfalls and the staff were scrambling to look like they hadn't been eavesdropping. The door opened and Sandor walked out. No one saw the wink he sent her way before disappearing down the hall to the cave he called his office.

**********

“What was the first thing you thought of?”

“What?” Sansa was walking with Sandor to his car after work and he hadn't been saying anything until he asked his question.

“You said you needed to think of another way to thank me. What was the first thing you thought of?”

“Oh, that.” She tried to look sad and disappointed (and mostly succeeding) as she said, “Well, I was going to take you out to dinner, but if you don't think I'm pretty in the slightest, then it's probably not the best idea.” She sighed melodramatically. “I suppose you just tolerate my presence as well.”

She started to walk away from him to head to her own car, and managed to take half a step when his hand shot out and wrapped around her wrist tightly. When she had first started working at Clegane's, it had scared the living daylight out of her when he did that, but now she knew he'd never hurt her. “I don't need thanks, just doing my job. I don't... I don't _just tolerate_ you either," he mumbled.

She smiled to herself. It was the most she'd get out of him at the moment. His gaze was locked onto his messenger bag, but she knew he was probably reeling right now and it would not do to tease him any further. “I know,” she said quietly. “I just didn't know how else to ask you out.”

He looked at her, his eyes going wide. “You w-wanted to ask me o-out? L-like... on a _date?!"_

She nodded, unable to help the smile on her face. He was so cute when he got flustered! And it was such a rare occurrence for him. “If you want to, no pressur--”

“Yes,” he said determinedly. “But I'm taking you out. You can have the nex--” He went really red. "I mean..." 

“Deal. You can have the first one, I'll take the second one. We'll flip a coin for the rest.”

He stared at her, dumbfounded.

“Unless you only want the two dates…” she said, casting her eyes down, though it was just to push him a bit more. He really was too fun to tease.

“Yes, I mean no! I...more dates are fine. I just... you could have any guy you want. Why are you bothering with me?” He was uncharacteristically shy, unable to look her in the eyes again.

“Isn't it obvious?” she asked.

He seemed uneasy. “If it's because of what I did, I told you, I was just doing my job…”

She shook her head. “It's not about that.”

Sandor narrowed his eyes at her, “You feel sorry for me?”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh my _gods!_ No! One more try.”

He thought about it, muttering to himself and absentmindedly scratching a spot on his chest as he thought. His other hand was still on her wrist, but it was loose enough for her to wriggle her hand into his.

After a few moments, he gave her a dubious look and said, “You lost a bet?”

She laughed. “No! How about I tell you if you can make it to five dates?”

“Why not now?”

“Because you gave such horrible answers! You must not think very much of me if you think those are ‘obvious’ conclusions, and I'm starting to wonder why you agreed to go out with me.” She grinned to let him know she was teasing.

“I…” He paused, his brows knit in frustration. “It's...it's not you...it's people in general. Sorry, but I really have no idea.”

Sansa pursed her lips and considered. “Ok, I'll tell you but you have to lean down so I can whisper it in your ear.”

The burnt side of his mouth twitched, but he leaned down to let her whisper in his good ear. She ducked around to the bad side instead.

“It's because I like you, dummy,” she said softly and kissed his cheek. "Pick me up tomorrow at seven!"

She left him standing there, frozen in place, as she giggled the entire way home.


End file.
